Emerging

I feel a little bit like we might be coming out from the other side. The light is noticeably different on my walks to the bus stop in the morning as the sky is more navy blue than inky black, there are little shoots appearing all over the garden, promising snowdrops and crocuses, and there are daffodils being sold in their thousands as little bunches of green that explode almost instantly to yellow once you get them home and watered. It's like emerging from a seemingly endless cocoon of winter darkness into the slightly brighter world of near-Spring.

Our daffodils are mingling with these beautiful bright pink tulips which really do lift the spirits. They share the end of the table with a pot of Hyacinths which look like they will flower next week if we have some sunshine over the next few days, filling the kitchen with their slightly overpowering sweet smell. I think the labels says they will be white but you can never quite be sure, we shall wait and see.

I am still plodding along with my Moorland stitchscape. It's a very textured one with the addition of much larger yarns and I am taking my time with it. I'm still not sure if I should add something more to the patch of green above the taller rock, it looks slightly flat to me so maybe it needs something extra, what do you think?

Filling in the above fabric was fun, following the colours and patterns of the print as closely as I could. I tried a kind of satin stitch for the stems of the plant although I don't think it is true satin stitch, not nearly neat enough, but it contrasts nicely with the almost fluffy looking french knots.

This is the section I am currently working on (below), which I think looks a little like a plowed field with it's regular rows of stripes. The best part about putting all of these fabrics and stitches together is trying to get different textures in the embroidery, you don't want too many spots or strips or florals, you want a mixture of them to break it up and provide interest. The fabrics change anyway depending on how you treat them, the cross hatched fabric was once a polka dot!

Every now and then I like to turn the hoop over and have a look at the underside. I always remember that all through my university and art/textile classes, I would spend ages creating a perfect image through stitch and proudly show my teachers who would immediately turn it over and prefer the messier underside. It was more abstract, more fluid, more natural, less refined, less perfect, less tight. After that I would always photocopy the underside and present the two sides next to each other, almost like two completely separate pieces of work. Sometimes the underneath wouldn't look like anything much, but occasionally the colours merge together and recreate the front in a really inspiring way- I quite like the colours and shapes that appear on the underside of my Moorland 'scape, it still feels quite moorland-y to me.